Have Vans Building Plans changed over the years?

I have been a member here for years but still don't have my PPL yet and have never been able to squeeze rivet yet but still have it in my plans someday. Seems through the years of me lurking on these forums I have sees some major and what I would consider great advances in Van's RV kits. Now you can buy prepunched quick build kits that were not available years ago. That would be the way i would go for sure to take some of the worry about building away from me. One of the questions I have had but have never asked is how are the Build Plans? Have they changed over the years also as the planes have developed. Seems I have talked to a few builders out there that the build plans could use a revamp to be a little more user friendly. So over the years how has the plans changed if any? Just curious as I still hope to build someday in the near future. Love this Forum, tons of great info and I know that one day when I get the opportunity to build I will have a huge support network to help.

With each new model intro, the plans and build manual are improved.

But Van's does not like to re-visit past plans. The 12 plans look like a comic book compared to the three plans that are sketched on stone tablets.

Quite happy with plans

I am quite happy with the combination of Builders Instructions and 22"x34" drawings for my RV-9A. This is typical for the -7, -8 and -9. The RV-10 and RV-12 have a different style of builder's instructions where the drawings are integrated into the instruction pages, all 8-1/2" x 11 I believe.

The best way for you to judge is to buy a set of preview plans for the model you are interested in. It'll only cost you about $50. For the -7,-8, and -9 the builder's instructions are the actual instructions, and the drawings are reduced to 8-1/2"x11" but still fully readable.

it's really a shame that there isn't more "Kaizen" on behalf of van's on the current products.
they however made leaps between each new kit. compare an rv-12 plan set with an old rv-6 and you know what i'm talking about, they show more than just the decades between in CAD technology.
these forums, the internet and a lot of builders have largely taken over the little improvements, pointing out traps and possibly ambigous instructions.
the downside is, this is mostly in an unstructured fashion, you have to read the forums regularly and remember topics or use the search function extensively.
i'm glad that van's does show some improvement in that area with posting updated pages on the rv-12 plans set online etc...
but before that, other than "large mods" service letters there was hardly any changes to current plans (or they were made in silence without notifying everybody). must be a left-over from the mailing/paper times.
still, overall, this doesn't change the fact that van's, even with the older kits, provides a great kit with great instructions!
but don't expect them to be at (toyota) car repair manual level of detail.
looking forward to their next (yet unknown) kit, beside that i believe that it's going to be even greater, i hope they will make the plans available electronically with the same for updates.

rgds, bernie

There is one good example where Van's have revamped the plans - The RV-7 Baffle kit.

I don't believe there is any problem with clarity of plans.

My friend is building a Sonex, and I had the chance to compare the quality of the plans of Vans with those of Sonex.
It is like comparing reading a childrens book with a handbook of applied psychology.

I built an RV-7 and then more recently some Xenos wings (Sonex) so had a good chance to compare plans. The main difference is that Vans provides drawings and also written instructions where Sonex just has the drawings and sometimes written instructions on the drawings. Generally I would say that Vans holds your hand a little more than Sonex.

I have 2 sets of preview plans for the RV-9. The first set is vintage early 2000-ish, and the other set is current. There are a few differences and revisions. I made a list of fuselage parts to fabricate from the old plans and then found out that a couple of the pieces are now prefabbed. Some of the tail kit pieces also have lightening holes precut now. I have also noted a couple of errors on the current plans, and it is probably unlikely that Van's will ever update these again.

It would be nice to have a list of errata at least on Van's web site, or some sort of change notes that builders with old plans can reference.

Have they changed over the years? Buy yourself a set of RV-3 preview plans...and enjoy the Xeroxed copies of mimeographed instructions originally done on a typewriter and find out for yourself....

The early birds had and still have "plans". With the RV-4 you could construct the entire airplane and never buy one part from Van's if you were so inclined.

On the RV-10 you get assembly drawings. There aren't individual drawings of the parts with dimensions such that you could fabricate a one individually if you wanted to.

Which is better? Depends on what your objective is....

I have a copy of 1996 RV4 plans from my Dad and it is pretty much night and day what my current RV7 plans look like. They have come a long ways. As an Engineer that reads and creates CAD drawings for a living, I have found them to be done pretty well. Not much I would change, and most of that is nit picky or personal preference. I do think they (Van's) tend to lag behind the technology curve when it comes to staying up to date with the CAD industry, but they're getting better.

Here is an RV-7 example

As with the comments above, you can see revisions that occur on Vans drawings. I think the RV-7 docs are really good but there are still some places that could be fixed such as the plans being further revised than the instructional text in a few spots. These are later in the build where prints and builder experience take over so the impetus to fix the innacuracies must be low.

Plan on getting new prints with each kit. I have seen revisions during my build time. (And yes I agree that the baffle kit delivered today is pretty darned good)

One spot that still sticks in my mind relates to a partial prefab part that forces a builder to bust an edge distance. It must be OK since the part has been on MANY craft since the -6.

Image of the part with proposed dims to fab your own attached.

Evolution

Yes, the parts and plans appear to be evolving over time. I don't have much experience with it yet, I'm still working on the empennage (VS right now).
I spend a lot of time looking at other logs and have seen some changes between what others have done in the past vs. what my 12/2010 dated plans say to do. For instance, there was a requirement (or recommendation) to build a jig for the Horizontal stab on the RV7 that is no longer required, and as mentioned above, some of the parts have been upgraded to eliminate process steps (e.g. it is no longer necessary to cut all the lightening holes in the Vertical Stabilizer web stiffener).